


Dollar Days

by DianaSolaris



Series: Cursed Man Meets Walking Glitterbomb [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 08:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11642487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaSolaris/pseuds/DianaSolaris
Summary: Thace gets a call from Lotor at ten-thirty on a Thursday night, asking for a ride home. But it turns out Lotor's in search of a shoulder more than a ride, and turns out the 'glitter boy' is a little more vulnerable than he lets on.





	Dollar Days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GalacticDavey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticDavey/gifts).



_Dollar days, survival sex_

_honour stretching tails to necks_

_I’m falling down, it’s nothing to me_

_It’s nothing to see_

 

Thace had to admit, his life had gotten a _lot_ more interesting over the past year. He couldn’t even pin it on any one thing – between adopting Keith, the subsequent senior class he’d gotten saddled with (if he caught Lance and Allura Snapchatting in class _one_ more time…), and his alternately-hilarious and terrifying new boss (Principal Zarkon kept changing his office placard to ‘Lord of the Universe’), there were a lot of options.

                _You have (1) new text._

_Lotor: heyyyyy handsome_

Of course, this latest development was teetering between ‘interesting’ and ‘panic-inducing’. Thace stared at the text, then opened it with more than a little trepidation. There was already a new one.

                _Lotor: soooo like you can drive and have a car and shit yeah?_

Thace paused. Less flirty than he’d worried (hoped?).

                _Thace: Yes, I do. Is everything alright?_

_Lotor: I’m druuunk and I need a ride home and I wanna be a good boy_

Hoo boy. Thace let _that_ one slide, although he couldn’t help flushing. One date. It had been one date –

                -one date, admittedly, that had ended up with some hardcore necking in the car and a rather flustered night alone afterwards. But that was beside the point. They hadn’t talked about it, which meant nothing had changed. And Thace was totally fine with that. Of course.

                _Thace: I can do that. Where are you?_

By the time Lotor had texted him the address, he was already halfway out the door, shrugging on his jacket. “Keith, I’m heading out for a little bit.”

                There was no response. Thace looked over at the couch. Keith was consumed in whatever he was doing on his phone. He thought about saying it again – but decided just to leave him to it. They’d get there.

                _Thace: Did anybody hurt you?_

_Lotor: No I’m just_

_Lotor: Dfajkdlfa_

_Lotor: You have RUINED ME_

Thace paused, and paid attention to the road. That didn’t sound good. He felt weird enough about having gone on a date with a 19-year-old –

                - _and what about the fact that he’s a former student? And that one of your current students saw you two together?-_

 _Don’t think about that right now,_ Thace reminded himself grimly. He was doing Lotor a favour. A favour. For a friend. That was all.

                Okay, that sounded tremendously fake. For somebody who had spent so much time yelling about truth, justice and rights for the American people in his youth, he was remarkably good at self-deception.

                _Thace: Okay, I’m outside._

_Lotor: Come get meee dors are confuzzling_

_Thace: …You STOPPED drinking after you texted me, right?_

_Lotor: Yes honest of course I d I ddaddy_

There were a billion responses to that. None of them were appropriate – although, Thace mused, the appropriateness of the answer kind of depended on what it was _responding_ to, wasn’t it? He adjusted his leather jacket, checked his hair in the rearview mirror before he caught himself, then headed into the club.

                “ID and five bucks,” drawled the doorkeeper.

                “I’m just here to pick somebody up. Designated driver.”

                “Just ID then. But in and out.” The doorkeeper blew a bubble of gum in Thace’s direction. Thace wondered if there was any grounds for giving her detention, then decided he probably needed to consider a new line of work.

                The interior of the club was dark, cut through occasionally by strobing lights, and Thace shielded his eyes, stomach souring slightly at the strong smell of alcohol. He’d avoided the stuff for years, but it was everywhere here. And Lotor – Lotor was _trashed,_ from the sound of it.

                He reached for his phone – “Fuck.” He’d left it in the car. Well – Lotor couldn’t be too hard to spot.

                “ _Thaaaaace!_ ”

                Yep. There he was. Thace just opened one of his arms, letting Lotor fall into him. And falling was pretty much the right word – Lotor was three sheets to the wind, eyeliner smudged across his face and - _hoo boy -_ the hickey that Thace'd given him on their date a few days ago visible at the edge of his lowcut shirt.

                "You actually came to get me," Lotor moaned.

                "Yes, I did. Because I think I'm the _only_ responsible adult in your life."

                 "It's _horrible,_ Thace!"

                 "I'm sure it is. Come on." Thace took Lotor by the hand (don't think about the fact that you're holding his hand, it's so he doesn't wander off and sit in the closest person's lap) and led him out of the club. Lotor ended up leaning on him heavily enough that he couldn't walk. " _Lotor._ "

                "Thace, you don't understand, you _ruined_ me!"

                 "I - Look, I don't think we should be having this conversation in public, or - or while you're drunk -" _Or maybe at all,_ Thace muttered to himself a little sourly. _I don't deserve to go through an investigation for making out with an adult._

                " _Look_ at them!" Lotor threw out his arm, indicating... the entire club, Thace guessed? Thace grabbed Lotor's arm, pinning it to his side and frogmarching the younger man _out_ of the club.

                The doorkeeper, still chewing her gum, grinned at the sight of them. "That your son?" she asked, smirk too wide for Thace to bear.

                "Haha. Where's your babysitter?"

                "Waiting for you at Bingo club."

                Thace didn't even grace that with an answer. Mostly because he couldn't come up with one that didn't reference Roman emperors and _damnatio memoriae,_ and he didn't want to try translating Latin over the noise of the club. That just seemed like a recipe for disaster. Instead, he pushed Lotor the rest of the way out of the club, closed the door behind him, and took a deep, _deep_ breath.

                "Okay, get in the car."

                "Nooo..." Lotor sank to the ground, tugging on Thace's sleeve. "Cuddle me."

                "On the curb?"

                 "It's a comfortable curb."

                 Thace could have argued, but Lotor was drunk, and he knew how that was going to go. Besides, there was something kind of endearing about the whole thing. He swept some of the cigarette butts aside and sat down next to Lotor, trying not to smile as the teenager latched to his arm. "...Your night didn't go as planned, huh?"

                 Lotor buried his face into Thace's shoulder, shaking his head. "...Your jacket smells good."

                "Is everything okay?" He wasn't sure he'd get a straight answer, but he wanted to ask anyway.

                "Ennnnnhhhhhh...."

                Thace, without entirely meaning to, reached over and brushed one of his knuckles over Lotor's cheek, dislodging a few stray pieces of glitter. "I'm glad you called me."

                "I meant to go home with somebody. Anybody," Lotor mumbled, words half-obscured by Thace's jacket sleeve. "And - I dunno."

                "None of them were to your taste? It happens, I'm sure, even for somebody as, uh -"

                "None of them were you," Lotor mumbled so quietly Thace almost didn't hear it.

                 Thace froze up. How did he-? How _could_ he respond to that? Deep in his chest, his heart fluttered, despite his best efforts. But it didn't matter that he was fighting off a feeling somewhere between horror and ecstacy - Lotor was almost in tears. "Hey - hey." He pushed Lotor's chin up. "Is that such a big deal?"

                 Lotor brushed his hand over his nose, struggling to keep back the tears. Thace'd never seen him so vulnerable before, not online or in person. Their date had been all fluff and good feelings - if anybody had been an anxious mess, it'd been _him,_ especially when Allura had shown up mid-date with all sorts of awkward questions. But now, staring down at Lotor’s wide and scared eyes, Thace wondered how much of this had been hiding under the surface, possibly deeper than _Lotor_ had even been able to reach.

                “I’m in – I dunno. I’m in like with you,” Lotor grumbled, and Thace couldn’t help it – he laughed. Lotor punched him on the shoulder, and Thace rubbed the soon-to-be-bruise ruefully, unable to shake the smile.

                “In like with me?”

                 “Yes. Shut up.”

                 “Is that a bad thing?” Thace teased, but Lotor just looked even sadder at the concept. Slowly, he nodded.

                “It – I’m _fine_ with being flighty. I like being dumb and shallow and stupid and – and whatever else people call me, I don’t know, glitter boy? It means people can leave and it’s _fine,_ there’s always another bed to crawl into and somebody else to make out with, but –“ Lotor rubbed at his eyes, making even more of a mess of his eyeliner. “But you’re – you’re _smart_ and _important,_ and you’ll like me while you need a break but then you’ll get sick of how my mouth always tastes like vodka even when I’m sober, and how I always burn breakfast even when I’m sober, and I’m late for everything, and it takes me forever to understand even basic concepts – I mean, Shiro’s already sick of me and he’s just my roommate – “

                “Hey. Hey, Lotor, breathe…”

                But the flood of words wouldn’t stop, and neither would the tears that were pouring down Lotor’s cheeks. Thace wondered when Lotor had last actually let himself cry over anything – or how often he’d stopped himself because everybody else had it so much worse. “I don’t want to be just a distraction for you but I don’t know _how_ to be anything else, and – and I want to show you who I am but… but this is _it._ This is it. There’s nothing else.”

                Thace found himself doubting that. All the same, Lotor believed it – and he didn’t know what to say. Instead, he pulled Lotor to his chest, running his fingers through the teenager’s white hair. “Well, I like it. And I’m pretty badly in like with you too.”

                Lotor sniffled some more, hands clinging to Thace’s shirt. Then… “Tomorrow morning’s gonna suck.”

                “How much did you drink?”

                “Way too much.”

                “I’m going to go ahead and call that a punishment for underage drinking.”

                “Diiiick.”

                “C’mon. Up you get.” Thace lifted Lotor to his feet – _god_ he was light – and half-walked, half-carried him to the car. He stuffed him into the passenger side, but Lotor threw his arms around his neck.

                “Smooches!”

                “Smooches?”

                Lotor puckered his lips. “Smooches.”

                “Well, I suppose –“ The moment he said that, Lotor pulled him into a deep kiss. He _did_ taste like vodka, mused Thace, but it wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. Then Lotor’s hand ventured down his shirt, and –

                “Nnnope.” He broke the kiss, smiling. “You’re too drunk for that.”

                “I’m _always_ drunk.”

                “Nice try.” He gave Lotor another kiss on the cheek, nuzzling his ear before closing the door and rounding the car to the driver’s seat. “Behave while we’re driving.”

                “Uh huh. I can do that.”

                “And if you’re gonna throw up, let me know. I hate cleaning this car.”

                “I won’t. But okay.”

                Thace smiled, then put on some music, eyeing Lotor’s face as David Bowie started playing. It was a quiet song – _Dollar Days –_ and Lotor closed his eyes, head bobbing slowly to the beat.

                “…Please don’t break up with me,” Lotor said finally, so quietly that Thace almost missed it. Thace turned the music down, although it was still playing in the background.

                “I don’t want to. Do you want me to?”

                “No…but would it be better?”

                Thace stopped at the stop sign. He stared up at the sky through the windshield, at the million stars. Antok was probably up there, and a half dozen of his other friends, for all he knew. When was the last time he’d felt like this for somebody who was living and breathing? When was the last time he’d pulled his head from marking homework and mentoring students to remember that he was more than a surrogate parent and a figure in front of a chalkboard, that he had a heart and a soul and a pair of hands?

                “No,” he said finally. “It wouldn’t be.” He suddenly realized he couldn’t stop smiling. “C’mon, glitter-boy. Let’s get you home.”


End file.
